If you ask any Five Nights at Freddy’s fan what the key to getting the adaptation of the game franchise right is, they’ll likely say the animatronics. Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Fox, and their many, many friends, are not only intrinsic to this world, but they are also very beloved by fans.
Faced with the daunting task of taking them to live-action, Blumhouse decided to hand over the reins to Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Famous for making puppets for Sesame Street, Dark Crystal, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and many more cultural touchstones, the idea was to create authentic versions of these characters while maintaining their terrifying nature.
Anyone who’s seen the trailer for the new movie will know the studio succeeded in doing just that, and as producer Jason Blum tells 12DOVE, this decision leant itself to another success too. Asked if it was his intention to scar audiences who grew up watching Sesame Street with the robots, he laughingly admits, "It really was".
"I like to get people started on horror very young and early," Blum adds about the decision to make the animatronics look both friendly and scary. "I thought this would be a great way to do exactly that to kind of convert a bunch of young people to horror fans."
This is something the movie's director Emma Tammi has also been very open about. Speaking to GR+, she also explains how the PG-13 rating aims to make the movie a "gateway" to the horror genre for younger viewers.
However, both Blum and Tammi admit that if they were faced with the chilling animatronics in real life, they're not sure they'd find them as friendly. "If you can’t beat them, join them," director Tammi laughs when GR+ asks about her solution if she was trapped in Freddy Fazbear's.
"Oh, I like that," Blum adds. "I'm on board with that. I’d get my own suit, get my own animatronic. I’d find my own animatronic to start to join the band." And, for the horror legend’s choice of character? Blum has no hesitation: "I would be a fox."
Five Nights at Freddy’s draws inspiration from the game franchise created by Scott Cawthon as it follows a troubled security guard called Mike Schmidt (played by Josh Hutcherson). After taking on a night job at the abandoned restaurant Freddy Fazbear’s Pizza, he soon finds more than he bargained for as its four animatronic mascots, Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy, come to life with some killer intentions.
Five Nights at Freddy's arrives in cinemas on October 25 in the UK and on October 27 in the US. It will also be available on Peacock on the same day in the US.
For more scares, check out our guides to the best horror movies of all time and all of the upcoming horror movies to add to your calendars.
